The present invention relates to wearable electronic devices, and more particularly to wearable electronic devices that measure hang time and vertical jump height.
Swimming is a sport that keeps people in great shape. Swimming exercises most of the body's muscles, and swimming can even save one's life. For most of competitive sports, it is almost guaranteed that people will eventually get hurt by sport injuries. In comparison, swimming is a sport that rarely causes serious injury. However, like me, most swimmers have bumped their head at the end of the pool while swimming backstroke. While at full sprinting speed, this type of injury may even result in minor concussions, and is also quite painful. It is desirable to design swimming goggles that allow swimmers to see the end of the pool without moving their head while swimming in backstroke. Also, backstroke swimmers often swim in a curvy zigzag path in their lane instead of a simple direct straight line. If the swimmer swims in a zigzag path, then the distance that they swim will be longer, and it also makes them look bad. It is desirable for a swimmer to see the sights behind them while swimming backstroke, so that they may line up their position, thus allowing the swimmer to swim in a straight line. It is also desirable to have swimming goggles that can help swimmers maintain proper head position while swimming backstroke.
Li in US publication number 2010/0030482 disclosed devices that monitor the body orientation of a swimmer, and provide real time comparisons between the current performance of the swimmer and previously achieved performances of the same swimmer. However, Li's device does not measure the head orientation of a swimmer. Head orientation is significantly different from body orientation because the accelerations at the head of a swimmer are significantly different from the accelerations at the body of a swimmer. This is because head motions are very different than body motions when swimming, an idea that has been proven by experimental results. Furthermore, Li does not compare the results of different swimmers, does not adjust the reference data for different swimming conditions, and does not disclose comparisons with universally accepted swimming time standards.
The previous application with the Ser. No. 16/253,230 disclosed wearable electronic devices that provide feedback for the user's physical activities by using audio, changes in the music played, or goggle adjustments. Such devices also provide additional feedback to the user by comparing the user's current swimming performance with recorded, standardized swimming performances, or with recorded swimming performances of another swimmer. The previous application disclosed a method of using a near-zero-g condition as a component for detecting swimming dives performed by the swimmer, as well as for measuring detailed statistics about such swimming dives. The movement patterns of individuals during jumps are similar to those of swimming dives, but the algorithms used for detecting and analyzing jumps still differ from those used for detecting and analyzing swimming dives. This patent application discloses applications in jump detection and analysis.
As used herein, the terms “time of flight” and “hang time” are synonymous and refer to the length of continuous time that an object or individual is in the air without making contact with or being supported by a surface. This length of time starts at the point at which the object or individual jumps, takes off, or leaves a surface that is able to support the weight of the object or individual. This length of time ends at the point at which the object or individual lands, or makes contact with a surface that is able to support the weight of the object or individual. Furthermore, the word “jump” can refer to any sort of physical action that an individual enacts in order to make himself/herself airborne for a length of time. Finally, the terms “vertical jump height,” “jumping height,” and “jump height” are synonymous and refer to the distance from the center of mass of an individual when he/she is initially being supported by a surface just before takeoff to his/her center of mass when his/her center of mass is at its peak elevation during a jump.
Tipton et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,638 disclosed a portable vertical jump measurement device that uses a stepping pad that comprises electrical switches. Hang time is measured when the user jumps off of the stepping pad and consequently changes the states of electrical switches. Although functional, Tipton's device occupies significant amounts of surface area, and while the device can be considered portable, it certainly is not wearable. In addition, users must ensure that they start and end their vertical jumps on the stepping pad, which significantly limits when and where the users can measure their vertical jump statistics. These constraints render the device unusable for measuring jumps performed during physical activities or sports such as basketball, where lots of movement in open space is required. Furthermore, the device does not contain an electrical sound speaker that provides real time feedback immediately after the user jumps. Tipton's device also does not use an accelerometer.
Alexander in U.S. Pat. No. 8,108,177 disclosed a wearable electronic device that uses an accelerometer to measure the time of flight of a jumper that has jumped into the air. Alexander assumes that a jumper, such as a skier or snowboarder, will experience a static acceleration of approximately one g when the jumper is being supported by a solid surface, and about zero g when the jumper is not in contact with a solid surface, where one g is equivalent to approximately 9.8 meters per second squared. Using this assumption, Alexander measures hang time as the length of continuous time where the jumper's acceleration is approximately zero g. This assumption is true only when the jumper wearing the device does not make any significant movements while he/she is airborne. For example, Alexander's assumption does not hold when the jumper is rotating about any axis in the air; it also does not hold when the jumper makes sudden accelerations and movements while airborne either. This is because such rotations and sudden accelerations while airborne will be measured by the accelerometer, resulting in a non-zero g acceleration. Consider a snowboarder who performs a rotating flip in the air or a basketball player who executes rotations for a spinning dunk. In these situations, the users' jumps would not be detected or measured if Alexander's method were to be used, since their accelerations in the air would not be close to zero. Therefore, Alexander's method is impractical for measuring and detecting jumps in multiple realistic conditions. In addition, Alexander's devices do not comprise an electrical sound speaker that provides real time feedback to the user immediately after he/she performs a jump.